From Meta To Mezcal, Zacal's Tech Vets Are Betting Big On Agave

Forbes

a day ago

Zacal Manso
There are faster ways to build a drinks brand. You can slap your name on a bottle. You can find a contract distillery. You can sell 100,000 units on launch and call it artisanal simply because the label says so.
Zacal, a new mezcal made in the volcanic hills of Michoacán, does nothing of the sort.
Instead, its quad of founders—who've spent more time in the tech world than on the agave trail (see: CVs that include Meta, FIIT, and Gaucho)—spent years working on their spirit in partnership with a third-generation Mezcalero. Their branding mantra is 'the spirit less ordinary.' Their launch run? 600 bottles.
As Zacal's co-founder and CEO Phil Clayton puts it, 'We purposely chose the tougher routes on everything, because we knew it would pay back in spades—and it kept us excited by what we're doing.'
Clayton, McCaig and Ochoa drinking Zacal
The mezcal, made from rare Michoacán agaves Manso Sahuayo and Bruto, is triple-distilled to soften smoke and amplify flavor. It's designed for the discerning drinker who'd like their mezcal a little less bonfire, a little more mineral. The bottles are hand-blown from recycled glass. The copper stoppers are made by local craftspeople. And no one, absolutely no one, is pretending this was easy.
'To see and hold those bottles, it all just clicked,' Clayton says. 'They did justice to the uniqueness of the liquid and elevated the overall experience. It even tasted better poured from these beautiful bottles!'
They're not bluffing, either. Zacal's early acclaim—including dual 'Master' awards at The Global Spirit Masters—comes off the back of obsessive detail, strategic stubbornness, and what the team repeatedly calls 'respect.' Not just for the product, but for the process and the people.
'We knew this couldn't be just another outsider brand parachuting into Mexico,' says co-founder Ian McCaig. 'That's why Milton [Ochoa, Zacal's aforementioned Mezcalero] isn't just a partner, he's a co-founder and equity holder. We've structured everything around balance in how we operate, how we give back to the local community, and how we present the product.'
The decision to base the brand in Michoacán rather than Oaxaca, the more familiar home of mezcal, for example, wasn't just for point-of-difference PR. It was the cornerstone of the whole operation.
'With 95% of all exported mezcal coming from Oaxaca and being made from Espadín maguey, it was crucial to find another place to start,' Clayton explains. 'Not only to stand out but to help bring some variety to the market and learn from the monoculture challenges seen in Jalisco for tequila.'
Zacal's initial mezcal releases, Ensamble and Manso Sahuayo
Michoacán, known as the 'rebel state' and the 'soul of Mexico,' is home to less than 1% of the country's exported mezcal and some of its most complex, undercelebrated agave varieties. The volcanic terroir, clay-rich soil, and dramatic elevation make for a very different profile than what you'll find in most bottle shops. Or bars. Or, almost most notably in the industry's current landscape, celebrity partnerships.
It's also where Milton Ochoa's family has run their vinata for generations. There, Zacal's maguey plants—Bruto and Manso de Sahuayo—are slow-roasted under volcanic rock and distilled not twice, but three times.
'We wanted to create something that was more lightly smoked and more approachable,' says McCaig, 'and the triple distillation increases the purity of agave flavour.'
They're also not chasing scale. At least, not in the way most start-ups would define it.
'Our current production can produce 1,500 to 2,000 bottles a month,' Clayton says. 'But we don't want to push beyond this. Otherwise corners get cut, compromises are made on quality and Milton can't directly run the end-to-end process. We cannot allow that.
'We're not here to claim that we're 'artisanal' only to then industrially produce at mass volume. When people pay. a premium, that's exactly what they should get, not something which is only seen as high-end because of marketing and inflated prices'
This is where the tech backgrounds come in. 'Mine taught me to be a strategic nerd,' Clayton says. 'To do your research, size the market, understand where the opportunities are, what your niche is and what their itch to scratch is.'
McCaig is just as methodical, but arguably more romantic. 'After years scaling businesses in tech and digital [including co-founding App Store favorite FIIT], I wanted to build something with soul. Something that blended culture, craft, and connection.'
The contrast between their previous ventures and Zacal couldn't be sharper. 'When we launched FIIT back in 2018 we went from an idea to a Minimum Viable Product [MVP] in less than 1 year,' McCaig continues. 'But with Zacal it took us a little over 3 years. We realised our 'MVP' actually needed to be pretty amazing from day one, although we still believe in bringing a 'test and iterate' process into this industry, much like software development.'
As a result, the co-founders have built a modern company that behaves like a legacy brand. The kind that doesn't rely on hype to get into bars or artificial scarcity to court collectors. Just, as McCaig says, that solid MVP.
'At FIIT, we obsessed over content, community, and experience,' McCaig says. 'We're applying the same principles at Zacal. Build slow, build true, and let real people—not marketing gloss—tell the story.'
That story includes a handful of private seed investors (friends or friends-of-friends), with no current plans to raise—unless the new routes to market they're testing take off faster than expected, of course.
'If we're able to nail down the three new routes to market we're working on, then we may well need to re-raise with existing investors,' Clayton says. 'It's coming earlier than planned, but it shows the momentum we're creating.'
They've done this by targeting the mindful hedonist as a consumer—that is, a drinker who cares about what's in the bottle, how it was made, and who made it.
'Few other brands have spotlighted the fact that mezcal is naturally pure,' McCaig says. 'It's 100% agave and nothing else. Its unadulterated nature, combined with more complex sugars, arguably makes it one of the best choices for the more health-conscious drinker.'
Which, of course, raises the bigger question: isn't it kind of mad to launch a mezcal brand—and hope to build an entire artisanal portfolio around it—at a time when the spirits industry is spiralling over the mere idea that people might be drinking less?
Clayton doesn't think so.
'People are drinking perhaps less,' he says, 'but when they do drink, they drink as well as they can afford.'
And on that front, Zacal more than delivers. The Manso Sahuayo [$94] is soft and balanced, almost shockingly so, with almond, citrus, and the gentlest whisper of smoke. The Ensamble [$140] goes deeper—herbaceous, floral, lightly briny, built for sipping—and lingers on the palate like a premium agave should.
For a triple-distilled mezcal from an underdog region, launched by four friends with no interest in doing it the easy way, this niche-inside-a-niche brand might just prove first-time founders have the passion, and curiosity, to build better than the pros.